Jamie Foxx delivered an emotional speech at the 2025 BET Awards on Monday night while accepting the Ultimate Icon honor, bringing the audience at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles to tears as he reflected on surviving a life-threatening health scare.
As he took the stage, the Oscar and Grammy winner recalled watching the in memoriam tribute segment from his seat.
“When I saw the memoriam, I was like, ‘Man, that could’ve been me,’” said Foxx, who was hospitalized in 2023 after suffering a stroke.
Struggling to hold back tears, the 57-year-old thanked God for giving him a “second chance” at life.
“I don’t know why I went through what I went through. But I know my second chance — I won’t turn it down,” Foxx said, his voice cracking with gratitude. “I have so much love to give. I hold him [God], I said, ‘man, just give me one more crack at this. Whatever reason you put this on me, I promise I’ll do right.’ … You can’t go through something like that and not testify.”
Foxx was presented the award by music legend Stevie Wonder. In the audience, his two daughters and sister wiped away tears. Foxx also acknowledged the role his children played in helping him recover.
“My beautiful daughter, Corinne, I cannot say enough about you,” Foxx said. “You’ve always taken a backseat to everything. But when you needed to drive it, you drove. And you made sure I was here. And at a certain point, I’m going to stop crying, but I’m not going to stop yet.”
Of his younger daughter, Anelise Estelle Foxx, the “Blame It” singer said: “When I was fighting for my life in there, I’ve got to say this. They said, ‘We’re going to lose him because his vitals are bad.’ And I didn’t want my 14-year-old to see me like that. But Anelise overheard the conversation and she snuck into my hospital room with her guitar and said, ‘I know what my Daddy needs.'”
He continued, “And as she played the guitar, my vitals (improved). And I realized God was in her guitar. The nurses ran in and said, ‘What did they give him?’ My daughter said, ‘Shh, I’ve got him.'”
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Foxx opened up about his “mystery illness” in his 2024 Netflix special, “Jamie Foxx: What Had Happened Was…” He revealed he suffered “a brain bleed that led to a stroke.”
He said that on April 11, 2023, he began experiencing a bad headache and asked a friend for an aspirin. At the time, he was working on the film “Back in Action” alongside Glenn Close and Cameron Diaz, which was released on Netflix earlier this year.
The initial headache began a harrowing time for Foxx. “I don’t remember 20 days,” he said in the special.
Once in the hospital, doctors performed surgery on Foxx almost immediately. While they couldn’t find the original source of the brain bleed, they believed it would be possible for him to make a full recovery, though they told his sister it would be difficult.
The cause of the medical emergency is still unknown, according to Foxx.
“It is a mystery,” he said early in the special. “We still don’t know exactly what happened to me. All I can tell you is that I appreciate every prayer, because I needed every prayer.”
Foxx, born Eric Marlon Bishop in 1967 in Terrell, Texas, was a stand-up comedian before breaking into television with various roles on Fox TV’s musical-comedy “In Living Color” in 1990.
Foxx won the Academy Award for best actor for his portrayal of Ray Charles in the 2004 biographical film “Ray” and a Grammy in 2010 for the song “Blame It.”
His other credits include “The Jamie Foxx Show,” “Collateral,” and “Django Unchained.”
Jamie Foxx is feeling grateful for the opportunity to share his side of the story about his 2023 health scare. On Monday, Oct. 14, the actor posted on Instagram reflecting on his personal one-man show, “One More Chance: An Evening with Jamie Foxx,” which occurred in Atlanta on Oct. 3-5. “God is good. As I post these pictures, my heart and my soul is filled with nothing but pure joy. On October [third] fourth and fifth I had an opportunity to tell my side of the story and there was no better place than Atlanta Georgia. I have to thank you Atlanta you showed up and you showed out, I haven’t been on stage in 18 years but I needed the stage and I needed an audience that was made up of nothing but pure love and that’s what you were,” the comedian said in part. Further in his post, the Academy Award winner gave thanked Piedmont Atlanta Hospital. “Thanks to the great people in Atlanta especially Piedmont hospital you enabled me to come back and be on stage and do what I love to do the most.” The “Django Unchained” star was hospitalized in April 2023 following an undisclosed “medical complication.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
